Shoot Seven - Work Record

 Plans for this shoot- For this shoot I want to contrast and compare how different owners live with their different pets, I also want to explore the idea that pets and their owners are similar. I believe by exploring this theme it will also cause me to explore how different people may chose the different pets that they do, and to investigate whether these differences may be due to their personalities or their other factors. I will aim to photograph the owners with their respective pets, I will not be giving the subjects much instruction as to what to do with their animals, as I want these pictures to be raw and natural, in order to capture the raw relationship between the pet and their owner(s).

For this shoot I will be using a tripod, as the pets are often restless, therefore the tripod will allow me to reduce the blur as much as possible.  Moreover, a camera and lens will allow me to physically take the images, I will also have the pets and their owners to photograph. All of these images will be photographed within my local town of Waltham Abbey. 
I want to capture images of the owner's both inside and outside with their pets, from which I will pick the best images to create my straight images, these will consist of no images of the pets alone, only images of them interacting with their owners. 

Inspiration- Elliott Erwitt's photographs of dogs (known as the series dogs dogs) and their owners inspired me to photograph these shoot, as some of his images are comical and humorous (for example, there's one image of a dog which appears to be driving a taxi), therefore they interested me and caused me to photograph this shoot, of owners and their pets. Elliott's images were taken between the years 1946-2004, and are all back and white
 images which explore our relationship between us ,and our canines. 


Best image from this shoot-

In this image the child appears to be innocently playing with her pet dog, this is interesting as some people would often consider this breed of dog (pit bull) to often be violent, however here it can be seen to be innocently, and gently, playing with its young owner- therefore this may challenge people's stereotypical views. Within this image I also admire how the subject is unaware that I am photographing her, as this makes the image more natural and believable to the viewer, also creating a type of fluidity to the image. 

I used a tripod to capture this image as animals and young children are often moving a lot, therefore the tripod allowed me to minimise any blur from the camera, and keep my image clear. I photographed this image on the following camera settings: shutter speed 1/200, ISO 400, and an aperture of 7.1, I believe these camera settings worked effectively together to create a narrower depth of field, in order to bring the viewers focus on to the owner, and the pet, this is due to my aperture setting of 7.1. 

Worst image from this shoot-

This photograph is on elf my worst from the shoot, as the image is overall slightly out of focus, this is due to my slower shutter speed of 1/60, meanwhile not having much light in the image as my ISO was 1800 meaning that the room was very dark. 

Furthermore, I also dislike the mirror in the background, as it runs through the subject's head which is ineffective, I would have preferred a clear background. Despite this, I believe the way the dog and it's owner are looking at each other is effective, as this shows love and care between the owner and their dog. Moreover, I would have liked to try photographing this owner and their dog at different angles, as I believe this would have given me a more variety of images to choose from, however the owner was reluctant to get the dog too excited by keep on moving it around.

If I was to reshoot this image I would photograph this outside, as there would have been more light there, in comparison to being in the dark living room, whereby the walls are red which again didn't help the overall outcome of the image. 

The Future: If I was to reshoot this shoot I wouldn't just focus on the owners and pets, but also where the pets food bowls may be positioned, or where their food is kept, I would then compare this to other pet owners, in order to explore these differences in the way people live with their pets. I would also have separate shoots for the different owners, and not include them all in one shoot, as I believe I could then compare their differences through my final images from the overall project.